


first days

by forbiddenquill



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, TWICE as kids uwu, kindergarten fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:42:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24054589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forbiddenquill/pseuds/forbiddenquill
Summary: Chaeyoung, nervous for her first day of school, meets two new friends.
Relationships: Chou Tzuyu/Kim Dahyun/Son Chaeyoung
Comments: 5
Kudos: 168





	first days

**Author's Note:**

> Commissioned by @prettyrapstar23
> 
> Based on this artwork by @arts423: https://twitter.com/arts423/status/1258251100106264576
> 
> Enjoy!!!

“Teacher Lee,” Chaeyoung said nervously, fingers gripping the end of the kind woman’s dress, “Can I go home now?” 

“You just got here, Chaeyoung-ah,” Teacher Lee said with a gentle tone. 

Behind her, Chaeyoung heard her parents’ car driving away. It made her feel nervous, like there were tingles happening inside her stomach. The more she thought about what she was going to face soon, the more she wanted to cry back into her mother’s arms. There was _no way_ she could survive being alone without her parents for an entire day. 

“Why do I have to go to school?” Chaeyoung asked the teacher sourly, letting herself be dragged further down the hall. She could hear the sounds of laughter ringing around her, the sounds bouncing back and forth against the walls. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that her parents were gone. 

For the first time ever, Chaeyoung felt small and scared. This was something new. She didn’t know where she was. She didn’t know what to do. All she had was her tiger hat, her backpack and some strawberries stored away in a small container inside her bag. In her arms, she held Bopa, a doll with green skin and bright pinkish-purplish hair. It was her only comfort for today. She hadn’t wanted to go to school at _all_ but Eomma had told her to trust Teacher Lee and she wasn’t the type to disobey what her parents wanted. 

“Well, the primary reason is to learn,” Teacher Lee answered.

“But I can learn back home.” 

“You’ll make new friends.” 

“But I have Jeonghoon.” 

“Is that your sibling?”

Chaeyoung nodded seriously. “He’s my brother.” 

Teacher Lee smiled at her. Her eyes were shining. “Do you miss him already?” she asked, stopping in the middle of the hallway and bending down so that she was looking at Chaeyoung straight in the face. 

Chaeyoung felt her lower lip trembling and nodded hesitantly. “I want to go home,” she said, “I just want to play with Simba.” 

“Simba,” Teacher Lee repeated, “Is that your dog?” 

“My stuffed toy. He’s a lion. Just like the movies!” 

“Why didn’t you bring him?” Teacher Lee gestured to Bopa in Chaeyoung’s arms. “You brought that one.” 

Chaeyoung sighed loudly. “Because appa said that I might misplace Simba,” she mumbled, “and he told me that I can only bring one toy.” 

“Is Simba your favorite stuffed toy?”

Chaeyoung nodded, lips pursed to stop them from shaking. “Yeah, along with her,” she said, gesturing to the doll in her hand, “He helps me stay calm while Bopa keeps me company.” 

“Your father is a smart man,” Teacher Lee said knowingly, her mouth curling into a wide grin, “Tell you what, Chaeyoung, if you can stay in school at the end of the day, then you can bring Bopa _and_ Simba tomorrow and I’ll make sure you won’t lose him.” 

Chaeyoung’s bottom lip stopped trembling and she stared at Teacher Lee. 

“Promise?” she asked, raising her pinky finger. 

“I promise,” Teacher Lee assured her and they linked pinkies, “Now, let’s go. I’m sure you’ll make fast friends later.” 

When they entered the classroom, Chaeyoung was met with a chaotic scene. The room was very large with colorful posters and decorations. It was very bright and happy, sort of like a rainbow. In front of Chaeyoung were many kids around the same age. A few were running around, chasing each other. Some were seated at the tables, doodling on their notebooks. Others were playing near a large chest box filled with toys, stuffed animals, blocks and other stuff that Chaeyoung didn’t know the name to. 

Everybody seemed to be having fun, which made Chaeyoung nervous. She missed Jeonghoon and Simba already. 

Teacher Lee gently nudged Chaeyoung forward, who was frozen in her spot. “It’s playtime,” the teacher said, “so everybody is just playing around. Is there anything you want to do?” 

Chaeyoung’s eyes travelled across the room. At one table, she spotted two girls arguing over some crayons. “I was using that _first_ , Jihyo!” the first one said. Her hair was tied up in pigtails and her teeth looked like a bunny’s. The second girl, who was shorter and had large brown eyes, stomped her foot. “Why can’t you just share!” she yelled angrily. 

Seemingly terrified at those two, Chaeyoung moved on. She looked to her right and spotted a girl, who seemed to be taller than her, scribbling on the board with chalk. She was copying what the teacher had written on the board earlier. Chaeyoung didn’t understand what it meant. When the girl spotted Chaeyoung staring, she looked away sheepishly and joined the two girls who were bickering earlier. 

Chaeyoung tried to find someplace she’d want to be in but everybody seemed to have their own cliques. She saw a group of three girls, all huddled together in the middle. They were all holding hands and whispering amongst themselves. She couldn’t even understand what they were saying. 

“Chaeyoung-ah?” Teacher Lee asked, her voice full of worry.

Chaeyoung didn’t want her to worry so she just hugged Bopa tighter to her chest. She wanted to go home, back to where her parents were waiting, back to where Jeonghoon would probably be still sleeping, back to where Simba was perched on top of her bed. But she knew she couldn’t do that. This was school. Her parents had told her how important school was. 

So Chaeyoung just swallowed her fears and pointed at two girls playing near the toy chest. “There,” she said, not really knowing why she picked that particular spot. It felt the safest. 

Teacher Lee led Chaeyoung across the room, away from the running boys and the bickering girls, and closer to where all the toys were. Chaeyoung didn’t let go of her dress, not wanting to be left alone. School seemed very… _scary_. It seemed so big and loud, completely unlike her room back home, where everything was cozy and peaceful. Even Jeonghoon, who fought with her about everything and anything, was quieter than these other kids. 

Chaeyoung looked at the girls. They seemed to be stacking different sizes of blocks on top of each other. The first girl—the one that caught Chaeyoung’s eye first—had dark blue hair tied in a bun on top of her head. Her face was so round and her skin was so white it looked like tofu. Chaeyoung wanted to reach out and pinch her cheeks. 

Tofu girl was yelling, “ _Ta-da!_ ” with her arms stretched wide, looking very proud of herself. It was as if she had been the one who created that tower of blocks. 

The second girl, who seemed taller and quieter, was the one making sure the blocks wouldn’t fall over. She was very pretty with her hair tied in a single braid behind her. Chaeyoung stared at her before looking away, feeling her face heat up. 

“Hello, children,” the teacher greeted the girls, who stopped whatever they were doing to look at the newcomers, “I was hoping you could let Chaeyoung join your game?” 

“No problem, Teacher Lee!” Tofu girl said, saluting. She hurried forward and grabbed Chaeyoung’s hand. “Hi, I’m Kim Dahyun and that’s Chou Tzuyu!” 

“Hello,” Chaeyoung greeted, putting down her bag and placing Bopa inside for safekeeping, “My name is Son Chaeyoung.” 

The pretty girl— _Chou Tzuyu_ —smiled. She was taller up close. “Do you want to help?” she asked politely, “We’re trying to build the tallest tower ever!” 

“Sure,” Chaeyoung answered. She let Dahyun drag her close to where the colorful blocks stood. If she was being honest, it looked like the entire thing was seconds away from falling apart. 

Tzuyu tried to put another block—this time, a red triangle—on top of the tower but it just fell over. 

“Tallest tower, right?” Chaeyoung asked, looking at the tower in its entirety. It didn’t look stable at all but she didn’t say anything. This wasn’t her toy to begin with, after all. 

Dahyun grabbed some other blocks from around the area and put them by Chaeyoung’s feet. “Do you think you can make it even taller?” she asked, giggling, “Tzuyu’s been trying the whole time but they keep falling.” 

“I don’t see you trying to help!” 

“I _am_ helping!” Dahyun said, raising her hands over her head and shaking them, “I’m moral support! My mommy tells me that I’m really good at it!” 

Tzuyu frowned and Chaeyoung hastily grabbed some blocks off the floor to stop that frown. “Here,” she said, adjusting her hat so that she could look easier, “I’ll try it.” The block in her hand was square shaped. She put it on top of the curvy block that Tzuyu had put on top of a triangle and it stayed there. 

The frown on Tzuyu’s face disappeared. “Thanks, Chaeyoung-ah,” she said, smiling brightly at her. 

Chaeyoung nodded and grabbed another block off the floor. Tzuyu did the same. Dahyun started cheering, egging them on. It felt nice. But the tower kept collapsing because of the irregular shapes. It came to the point that they just gave up halfway through rebuilding them. 

“I like your hat,” Tzuyu told Chaeyoung as they started cleaning up their blocks. Playtime was nearly over. 

Chaeyoung grinned. “Thanks,” she said, taking her hat off and admiring its orange and black design, “It’s a tiger.” 

“You kind of look like one,” Dahyun pointed out. 

“My mom says it’s because of my teeth,” Chaeyoung said, smiling broadly to show off her _incisors_ , as eomma had called it. Dahyun and Tzuyu peered closer, admiring her teeth. 

“Yeah,” Dahyun said, nodding to herself, “you _do_ look like a tiger.”

“Or a lion,” Tzuyu pointed out. 

“And you kind of look like a tofu,” Chaeyoung told Dahyun. She reached out and pinched Dahyun’s cheeks. The other girl yelped and rubbed her face with both of her hands, her bottom lip sticking out in a pout. “Oh, sorry about that,” Chaeyoung muttered, feeling bad. 

Tzuyu waved her off. “It’s fine,” she said, “I like to poke Dahyun’s cheeks too. They’re fun to play with.”

“Hey!” Dahyun said, taking a step back, “They’re _my_ cheeks.” 

Now it was Tzuyu’s turn to pout. “But they’re adorable!” 

Tzuyu reached forward to pinch those said cheeks but Dahyun screeched, rolled over and ran away, hiding behind Teacher Lee. Chaeyoung laughed, doubling over and holding her stomach. Tzuyu laughed alongside her. 

When Dahyun came back, she was frowning. “Tzuyu looks weird too,” she said, pointing at Tzuyu’s ears, which were sticking out of her hair, “Did you see _Star Wars_ , Chaeyoung-ah? Can you guess which character she looks like?”

Chaeyoung hummed in thought, trying to remember. Whenever her parents decided to watch something, they had to make sure the movie was friendly for kids, which was stupid. Chaeyoung could watch whatever she wanted! She was a big girl, after all. 

But she wasn't sure if she knew what Dahyun was talking about. Tzuyu didn't look like any character from any movie she'd seen. In fact, Tzuyu looked just like Chou Tzuyu. A pretty classmate with stars in her eyes and a dimple in her left cheek. 

Kind of like the dimple Chaeyoung had on her right one. 

"I don't know," Chaeyoung told Dahyun, "I don't think I've seen the movies." 

Dahyun gasped, her hands coming up to pull at her hair. Because it was tied in a high bun, she just ended up gripping her head in shock. "You're _joking_!" she said, "How have you not seen the greatest movie ever!" 

Chaeyoung shrugged. "I just watch whatever my mom plays for me," she said, "I don't know anything about _Star Wars_." 

" _Yoda_!" Dahyun yelled. 

Tzuyu frowned. "Bless you?" 

"Nooooo!" Dahyun wailed, dramatically falling to her knees while mimicking a broken heart. "This is _so_ bad. I can't be friends with both of you if you don't know _Star Wars_." 

Chaeyoung and Tzuyu looked at each other. 

"Maybe," Tzuyu began slowly, brows furrowed, "all three of us can watch it together?" 

Chaeyoung nodded. "At my house!" she said, "You guys can bring snacks but I'm pretty sure my mom will just order pizza for us." 

Dahyun raised her head, eyes wide. "For real?" she asked in a hushed whisper, "We'll watch all nine movies?" 

Tzuyu gaped. " _Nine_ movies?"

Chaeyoung internally groaned but nodded anyway. She wanted to see Dahyun happy, even if it was at the expense of her free time. She glanced over at Tzuyu who nodded as well. It was clear that she wanted to see Dahyun happy too. 

“Great!” Dahyun said, jumping up to her feet and engulfing Chaeyoung and Tzuyu into a huge hug, “I’ll tell my mom about it! I can’t wait!” 

Chaeyoung leaned into Dahyun’s hug and met eyes with Tzuyu over her shoulder. The other girl cracked a wide grin and winked. Feeling very warm, Chaeyoung raised her hands and embraced the two of them back just as tightly. Her heart felt very full. It was similar to how she felt each time her mom came home with strawberries or when her dad taught her how to draw or when Jeonghoon gave her Simba, even though he wanted him too. 

Chaeyoung thought back to what Teacher Lee told her earlier. 

_You’ll make new friends_.

Maybe, just maybe, school wasn’t _that_ bad, after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> Just a simple, fluffy fic hehe...


End file.
